MIKE GRAVEL'S CAMPAIGN FOR DIRECT DEMOCRACY

Mike Gravel works hard to promote direct democracy and make the concept common public knowledge. Fighting against mainstream media and stagnated Washington politics, his goal is revolutionary. We salute his dedication and determination to make direct democracy a household term, it is going to take a whole lot of us to get his sort of initiatives rolling. -Editor



Power to the People
Mike Gravel’s campaign for direct democracy

BY MAX NEWMAN-PLOTNICK

Source: http://hprsite.squarespace.com/power-to-the-people-042008/

Mike Gravel served two terms as a U.S. Senator from Alaska from 1969 to 1981. Currently a candidate for the Democratic nomination for the presidency, he sat down with HPR to discuss what he considers to be the most important issue facing America: his National Initiative, a plan to implement a form of direct democracy through federal ballot initiatives.

HPR: You were the first person to file your candidacy for the Democratic nomination. But in the last half of 2007 you started getting excluded from debates and your campaign isn’t getting much coverage. Given this, how effective has your campaign been in promoting direct democracy?

Sen. Mike Gravel: It’s been more effective than I realized. It’s very hard; we’re talking about something that’s totally out of the box, politically. I got more press for the National Initiative in the first week of my candidacy than I had in the ten years before that. But when you’re talking about something that people are not acquainted with, you have to repeat it over and over again. Now what had happened in the campaign was that the Democrats, and then corporate America, immediately wanted to marginalize me. Not so much because of the National Initiative, because I don’t think they understand it at all, but because I took a very strong position on the war and pushed the other candidates in that direction. I told the Congress how to end the war and gave them the procedures on how to do it. That disturbed them. Then when I challenged them over the military-industrial complex and how the country has been sold out, that disturbed them.

But, after the Texas and Ohio primaries, the media has got to have some grist for the mill, which is going to give me an opportunity to get my message out, and that’s why I continue to run. After the convention, obviously I won’t have the nomination, but maybe another party would want to pick me up as their standard bearer going into the next election. There are five blind polls that I know of that show that on the issues I am far and away ahead of all the other candidates. If the American people knew who I was, with respect to the issues, I would become president.

HPR: Would you say that the National Initiative is the most important issue of your campaign?

MG: It’s not only the most important issue of my campaign, it is the most important issue in the history of the country since it’s founding. There are twenty-four states that have initiative laws where people can make laws at the state and local level. But those laws are very inadequate. It should apply in every government jurisdiction in the United States. In the twenty-four states that have this, it is controlled by representative government. I want it to be independent of representative government. And how we do that is by having the electoral trust created, which will administer the procedures on behalf of the people.

HPR: So you see the National Initiative as being a fourth branch of the government, providing checks and balances?

MG: Very much so. In fact, it becomes the fourth check. And that’s very significant, because if you have one party controlling all three branches of government, you have no checks. And keep in mind, under our system, which has been so corrupted, the two political parties, Democrats and Republicans, which are not mentioned in the Constitution, are more powerful than the executive, the judicial, and the legislative branches. It’s a monopoly. And how do you break that monopoly? You can’t. Not within the context of representative government. That’s why I decided to go around the government and enact this law to allow the people to become lawmakers.

HPR: How do you get the necessary political power to pass these measures?

MG: By turning around and having a private non-profit corporation conduct a national election, and getting sixty-million Americans to vote for it. When this happens it will become the law of the land. The founding fathers all agreed that the people were sovereign and the first amendment gives the people the right to express their opinion and petition the government. What is an election but this?


For more information regarding the National Initiative and Sen. Mike Gravel, see his site: http://www.gravel2008.us/

THE NATIONAL INITIATIVE FOR DEMOCRACY - HEARD OF IT?

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What is the National Initiative?

Not everyone is aware of the existence of the National Initiative for Democracy, which is an elaborate plan to institute a system of direct democracy in the U.S.A. It would be enacted in the form of a constitutional amendment made binding by a popular vote in which the majority of the nationwide electorate approves it. This bold and visionary plan to create a balance of power betweeen the people and the existing branches of government is largely the work of former senator and current presidential candidate Mike Gravel. Read the following article and follow the links to learn more about it. You can also register your vote right now for the National Initiative. When 50 million have done so, it becomes the law! Find out how. -Editor

AMERICA DOES NOT HAVE A GOVERNMENT "BY THE PEOPLE"

(Source:http://www.ni4d.org/learnmore.htm)

The United States of America is not, in fact, a democracy. In a democracy, the people are the government. Today, we elect people to run the government for us. The people we elect do not, for the most part, run the country in the interest of the people, they run it in the interest of themselves. We are led to believe that we must put our trust in these people. We, the people, do not have the power to create laws in our interest. This leads to an extreme imbalance of power in the government versus the people.

To solve these problems and create a true balance of power, The Democracy Foundation has created a plan named the National Initiative for Democracy.

The powerful elites who control our government will self-servingly argue that the People are not qualified or do not know enough to be trusted to make laws. To counter those opposed to empowering the People, one needs only look to the record of the last 100 years in the 24 states where the People make laws by initiative. In those states the People have legislated responsibly, and many times more so than their elected representatives. Civil service, campaign finance reform, and women's right to vote are but a few examples of the progressive legislation initiated by the People.

The experience of Switzerland is even more instructive. Switzerland, a poor, multi-ethnic, multi-lingual, hardscrabble country without natural resources, decided, 140 years ago, to adopt a constitution that brought the People into the operation of government as lawmakers. Even the acclaimed Alexis de Tocqueville had serious doubts that this Swiss experiment in direct democracy would work. The result is without precedent in human history; Switzerland has evolved into the most successfully governed and wealthiest nation in the world.

The National Initiative has been developed and refined over the past decade by former Senator Mike Gravel (D. Alaska, 1969 - 1981) and his colleagues. The Democracy Foundation, a nonprofit 501 c 3 organization, is sponsoring the National Initiative. Philadelphia II, a separate nonprofit organization, is conducting an election on National Initiative at votep2.us, giving the people the opportunity to vote for and enact the National Initiative into law. Both are organizations are led by Senator Gravel.

The National Initiative is a legislative proposal that includes an amendment to the Constitution, the Democracy Amendment and a proposed federal statute, the Democracy Act. The Amendment 1) asserts the constituent sovereignty of the People to make laws, 2) outlaws monies in initiative elections not from natural persons, and 3) legalizes the self-enactment process of the Philadelphia II election.

The Act establishes deliberative legislative procedures for the People and creates an administrative agency (the Electoral Trust) to implement those procedures on behalf of the People, independent of representative governments.

With the National Initiative's enactment, the American People will experience the responsibility of legislating and governing themselves directly, the benefits of which will bring about greater civic maturity. The National Initiative does not alter the existing structure of representative governments; however, it does add an additional check, the People, to our system of Checks and Balances. Bringing the People into the legislative operations of government sets up a working partnership with the People and their elected legislative representatives.

The election by Philadelphia II at votep2.us overcomes the monopoly of representative government over the people and the failure of Congress to share its lawmaking powers with the People, who are already experienced as lawmakers in 24 states where they make laws by initiative, and everywhere, whenever people vote on bond issues.

The Philadelphia II election began on September 17, 2002 allowing people to the use of the Internet to vote on the National Initiative. The successful use of this ubiquitous technology now depends on supporters networking their friends, relatives, colleagues and organizations informing them that they can enact the National Initiative into law without the government by voting at: votep2.us

The ideological foundation of the National Initiative rests on the belief that the constituent power of the People is sovereign and the American People can govern themselves as they see fit in pursuit of their happiness and the general welfare. George Washington put it best: The basis of our political systems is the right of the people to make and to alter their constitutions of government.

You can best equip yourself to help network your friends by investigating the subjects below and following their links (which are repeated in the left margin of the following pages) to learn more about:

The National Initiative For Democracy: A description of the National Initiative

The Democracy Amendment: Full text of the proposed amendment to the United States Constitution.

The Democracy Act: Full text of the proposed federal statute establishing procedures for the Legislature of the People.

Parrish Report: A more easily readable description of the National Initiative

Rationale: Why we need the National Initiative.

First Principles: The philosophical foundation of the National Initiative.

Partnership In Democracy: How the Legislature of the People, working in partnership with our elected legislators, overcomes the flaws of a purely representative democracy while retaining its benefits.

Constitutionality: The legal foundation of the National Initiative.

Action Plan: The plan of action to enact the National Initiative